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Sunset at Menemsha

The Boat

Red Tail is a brand new 2013 32 foot twin inboard Diesel built to exacting custom specifications for Captain Fred by Carolina Classic Boats of Edenton, North Carolina, a family run company with a 25 year history of building high quality boats. She is a very heavily built boat of proven design that can take on the most challenging sea conditions. At 25,000 pounds fully loaded, she is heavier than many much bigger boats. When it comes to ride quality in rough water, there is "no replacement for displacement."

The Carolina Classic 32 is one of the most highly regarded and sought after offshore boats ever built, legendary for excellent ride quality in tough conditions. She is powered by two ultramodern electronically controlled common rail Cummins QSB 6.7 480hp Diesel engines that have underwater exhausts for a quiet, smokeless ride. No Diesel smell and you can carry on a conversation without shouting!

The seating arrangements are most comfortable for four to five passengers. The ideal group is two or three people fishing and one or two companions.

Red Tail is by far the fastest offshore charter boat on the Island, capable of cruising at 28 kts (33mph) when sea conditions permit to get us out to the fish quickly and give you the most time fishing. She carries 380 gallons of fuel for a cruising range of over 300 miles making it possible to run all the way to the Atlantic Canyons with fuel to spare.

There is a fully private marine head (that's a bathroom with toilet for you landlubbers) with hot and cold running water in the cabin down below and a galley with a refrigerator for keeping food fresh and a microwave for heating lunch and beverages. The salon is air conditioned and heated.

We have the finest modern electronics on board for navigation and to help find the fish. A powerful 4 foot 6kW open array radar spots birds miles away and ensures safer navigation in fog. There are two 12" Simrad NSE professional displays at the helm and an 8" NSE in the tower that show charts, radar, and fishfinder displays. We have the latest high-performance Simrad BSM-2 CHIRP fishfinder with Airmar transducer to show bait and fish under the boat in great detail to depths of over 1,000 feet and a high-precision sea temperature sensor to find the small differences in water temperature that can help pinpoint the best places to find our elusive big game.

Red Tail has complete safety gear including a life raft, twin VHF marine radion, an EPIRB emergency beacon, InReach satellite messaging, and an AIS transponder that allows big ships to "see" us no matter how poor the visibility.

Red Tail is also unique among Island charter boats in having twin refrigerated fish boxes. We partially fill the fish boxes with salt water and chill it down to about 35 degrees. This is much better for maintaining the quality of the catch than plain old crushed ice, which puts the fish in contact with fresh water and hurts the texture and flavor. We use the same fish handling techniques as get used in Japan for the highest quality tuna for sushi -- the fish you read about getting auctioned in Tokyo for hundreds of thousands of dollars!